Privates on Parade (1982)

User Rating:

4.8/10   

Director:

Michael Blakemore

Writer:

Peter Nichols (play)

Release Date:

25 March 1983 (Australia)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | War

Tagline:

Malaysia, 1947. Some fought. Some danced.

Plot:

The members of SADUSEA (Song And Dance Unit South East Asia) fall in and out of love while trying to dodge Malayan Communist bullets in the late 1940s...

Plot Keywords:

Southeast Asia | Blood | Gay Interest | Military | Army

Cast

Patrick Pearson	...	Sergeant Steven Flowers
Michael Elphick	...	Sergeant Major Reg Drummond
Joe Melia	...	Sergeant Len Bonny
John Standing	...	Captain Sholto Savory
Nicola Pagett	...	Acting Lieutenant Sylvia Morgan
Simon Jones	...	Sergeant Eric Young-Love
David Bamber	...	Sergeant Charles Bishop
Bruce Payne	...	Flight Sergeant Kevin Cartwright
Robin Langford	...	Electrician
Denis Quilley	...	Acting Captain Terri Dennis
Neil Pearson	...	Pianist
Steve Dixon	...	Drummer
Jasper Jacob	...	Bass Player
Leonard Preston	...	Trombonist
Peter Hutchinson	...	Trumpet Player

Runtime:

Sweden:97 min | USA:107 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:15 | Iceland:L | Australia:M | Sweden:11 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Malaya

Company:

HandMade Films

A wonderful bitter sweet comedy-drama

After reading a bunch of negative reviews of this film I thought I should post my own. This is a comedy-drama, based on a theatrical play/ It is funny, sad, and serious, sometimes all at once. It has made up it's mind what type of film it's trying to be. It's about a theatrical unit doing a touring variety show in the Malayisan jungle at the very end on WWII.

It's also about a commanding officer who had missed the war and is now trying to get his taste of the war by using this unit he's in command of to fight some kind of enemy. It's also about an unscruplous sargent who is using this unit to arm the rebel soldiers and make some money on it. It's also about a poor eurasian woman who is pregnant by this sargent and has to trick another soldier to get an abortion to lose the baby.

The film does this by using humor which is something I do in my everyday life to get thru a trying day, and what's wrong with that. The one character that holds the film together is the non-military head of the acting troupe, Terry Dennis (Denis Quiley, in a award callibar performance). Terry who changes all male names to female including "Jessica Christ", and has a heart for everyone in the troupe is the glue that holds this film together. He is not a stereotype performance but a flesh and blood character. John Cleese is the colonel Blimpish officer in charge of the troupe, who doesn't really understand theatrical types, nor does he want to. Cleese is fine in the role, so is the rest of the cast including Nicola Pagget as the eurasian woman and The always wonderful Simon Jones as Eric Young-Love. Jones later played the Cleese part in a production Off-Broadway here in New York with Jim Dale as Terry Dennis.

Don't listen to the negative reviews, try this for yourselves, I think you'll like it. You may, like me, shed a tear or two before it's over, and then laugh so hard you'll fall out of your seat during the end credits.